3,500 homes under threat as Mountain fire rages in Southern California

Firefighters were struggling to contain a fast-moving Ventura County wildfire on Thursday that had already destroyed numerous homes and forced thousands to evacuate — and the dangerous winds fueling those flames were forecast to continue through Friday.

Extreme Santa Ana winds helped propel several fires across the region, but the Mountain fire exploded Wednesday, sweeping into foothill communities around Camarillo and Moorpark.

By Thursday morning, the fire was listed at 14,500 acres with zero containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, but after an active night, its actual footprint is likely much larger, officials said.

It remains unclear exactly how many homes have been lost, but the devastation was evident along hillside streets where the burned husks of structures smoldered.

Additional evacuation orders were issued early Thursday for residents in Santa Paula, located just north of the Santa Clara River. The fire on Wednesday had sparked south of the river, but high winds pushed the fire west, with embers sparking new blazes up to two and a half miles ahead of the main fire line.

“When a fire — a wind-driven fire — is spotting that far out, it’s really hard to to focus on any kind of perimeter control,” Thomas Shoots, a CalFire spokesperson, said from the fire’s command post at the Ventura County Fairgrounds Thursday morning.

Helicopters were back in the air Thursday morning, after a long night of firefighting.

“When you have a fire that’s over 14,000 acres, that’s a lot of vulnerabilities where it could potentially just keep spreading,” Shoots said.

The National Weather Service on Wednesday issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert, warning of “widespread, extreme fire weather conditions” across southwest California. The alert hadn’t been heightened to that level in the Los Angeles area since 2020.

But as of Thursday morning, forecasters were predicting slightly better conditions for the Mountain fire compared to the day prior, with expectations that winds would “not be as strong as Wednesday and winds will decrease faster in the afternoon.”

Still, winds pushing the fire southwest could sustain speeds of 30 to 55 mph with gusts as high as 100 mph in wind-prone mountainous locations on Thursday, Ventura County emergency officials warned.

While firefighters made some progress overnight, Shoots said there are still concerns that the winds will fan more flames across an area ripe for burning, with extremely dry brush and vegetation.

The strong winds can push the fire quickly up hills, building momentum that can create explosive fire behavior. The area where firefighters saw long-range spotting Wednesday is a mix of urban development surrounded by brush.

“It creates a kind of disastrous recipe,” Shoots said.

He said fire inspectors are out assessing how many structures have been damaged and destroyed, but a precise estimate was not available Thursday, Shoots said.

“We know there was a lot,” he said.

At least 3,500 homes and other structures are threatened and more than 10,000 people have been forced to evacuate, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said federal funds had been secured to help in fighting the blaze.

Southern California Edison began shutting off power to customers in areas where its equipment was considered at high risk of sparking a wildfire.

A home is engulfed by flames in Camarillo on Wednesday amid the wind-driven Mountain fire.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Almost 70,000 utility customers across the Southland had power cut as of Thursday morning “due to heightened wildfire risk,” according to the utility. About a third of the shutoffs were initiated in Ventura County, but power was also cut across Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Orange counties. An additional 257,000 were being considered for safety shutoffs in those areas through at least Thursday, as were customers in Santa Barbara and Tulare counties, SCE reported.

The majority of the National Weather Service’s red flag and high-wind warnings across the region were set to expire by Thursday evening, however a standard red flag warning would remain in effect through Friday morning for the Ventura County mountains, the Interstate 5 corridor and the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.

Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Hugh Montgomery said his crew had successfully salvaged around a dozen burning homes in the hills of Camarillo but not without challenges.

The Mountain fire destroyed homes on both sides of Old Coach Drive in Camarillo.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“We were inside of a structure fire and starting to make good headway when the hydrants went dry,” he said. “I think everything is just so depleted from everyone sucking off of the water system.

“It’s very unfortunate that people are losing homes and their belongings,” he added, “but from what we’ve heard people are getting out safely, and that’s the most important thing.”

Thousands were evacuated as firefighters struggled to douse flames.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Red Cross volunteers set up cots and tables as the organization began converting the temporary evacuation center at Padre Serra Parish into an overnight shelter. The Salvation Army arrived with hot meals.

The center opened at 10:30 a.m. By late afternoon, roughly a hundred evacuees had taken shelter inside.

A few arrived with minor burns sustained during the evacuation, said Dave Wagner, public affairs volunteer with the Red Cross. Many at the shelter worked to find accommodations with friends or family or at nearby hotels, with limited success. About 90 were set to spend the night there, hoping to return home Thursday.

Linda Elmo, an evacuee, said the flames moved so rapidly she and her husband had little time to flee. A firefighter knocked on the door, urging her and her husband to “go, go, go!”

“It happened so fast,” Elmo said.

Local authorities have issued air quality alerts due to smoke and ash from the Mountain fire for much of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Dozens of Ventura County schools were closed Thursday because of the fire, and several are closed through Friday.

Times staff writers Richard Winton, Sandra McDonald and Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.